Blogging for Business 101
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Transcript of Blogging for Business 101
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Blogging for Business 101The what, when and how of using blogging to
take your business to the next level
Brought to you by:
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Brief Introduction
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Brief Introduction
• Tracy Marlowe, Partner and Director of Account Services
• Creative NogginFull service, branding, advertising and communications companywww.creativenoggin.com
Musings of the Creative Noggins (our blog)http://blog.creativenoggin.com
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What we’ll cover today• Blogging stats• What to consider before you get started• Benefits of blogging• How to get started• Posting (who, what, when, etc.)• Blog Promotion• I have a blog! Now what?
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Blogging Stats
• Technorati, State of the Blogosphere 2008 (published in Sept 2008)
• 133 million blog records indexed by Technorati since 2002
• 7.4 million blog posts in last 120 days• 900,000 blog posts in 24 hours• 120,000 new blogs started every day
(or 1.4 new blogs every second)
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Blogging Stats
Blogs are a part of our daily lives. The numbers vary but all agree that blogs are here to stay:
• 96.6 million US blog readers in 2007 (48.5% of Internet users)
• 27.9 million US bloggers in 2007 (14%) • Projected 128.2 million readers in 2013 (58%)
source: eMarketer (April 2009)
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Blogging Stats
“The word blog is irrelevant, what’s important is that it is now common, and will soon be expected, that every intelligent person (and quite a few unintelligent ones) will have a media platform where they share what they care about with the world.”
–Seth Godin, Foremost blogger His blog is: Seth’s Blog at sethgodin.typepad.com #18 in the top 100 blogs on Technorati and
Author of the bestselling book “Tribes”
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Blogging Stats
U.S. Bloggers are more educated and affluent than the general Internet populationAs compared to the general Internet population, U.S. bloggers are more male, single and employed full-time
Source: ComScore Plan Matrix, July 2008
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Blogging Stats
Corporate Bloggers:• 69% are also professional bloggers• 65% are professional bloggersProfessional Bloggers:• 59% are also personal bloggers• 17% are corporate bloggers
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Blogging Stats
These are all blog results
Are you reading blogs and you don’t even realize it?
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Before you get startedWhat do you need to consider?• Do you have the resources?• What are bloggers saying about your industry?• What will you focus on?• How will you keep it customer centric?• How will you keep in-synch with your companies communication strategy?• What will your comment policy be?• Are you prepared to be patient?
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Before you get started
Do you have the resources?• How many people can write?• How much time can they commit?• Goal: minimum of 2-3 posts per week (ideally three)
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Before you get started
What are bloggers saying?• About your company?• Your products/services?• You competition?• Any company spokespeople in the press?
Even if you decide not to launch a blog, it’s still good to stay in the loop with what bloggers are saying and respond to their comments.
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Before you get started
What’s your blog’s focus?• To build company awareness?• As a customer service tool?• As a customer forum?• What is your goal? What is important to your
customer? How can you meld the two?
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Before you get started
How will you create customer centric content?• Do NOT view your blog as a self promotion channel• Use your blog to indirectly promote your company• Examples:• Graco• Dell• Starbucks
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Before you get started
How will you mesh blog strategy with overall company communications strategy?
• Blog is long-term; not quick campaign• MUST be in-line with company strategy and brand
platform
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Before you get started
What will your comment strategy be?• Will you moderate?• If so, who approves?• Who replies?• Which will be allowed and which deleted?
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Before you get started
Are you willing to be patient?• Results won’t happen overnight• Must be consistent and dedicated for months and
years to see true incremental results• Think marathon, not sprint
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Benefits of bloggingStill interested? If so, here’s how a blog can help your business:• Establish Credibility• Increase your SEO • Build a Community• Know your Market • Low Cost/Web Publishing Solution
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Benefits of blogging
Establish Credibility• Help prospects sell themselves• Answer top of mind questions• Educate your market and
establish yourself as an expert
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Benefits of blogging
Increase your SEO• A HUGE percentage of your blog traffic
could come from search engines, especially Google• Tailor your content for SEO• Include keywords and phrases• Control the key elements that search engines
crawl for (I’ll show you how to do all of this later in this presentation)
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Benefits of blogging
Build a community• Share knowledge with large audience• Captivate people who share those interests
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Benefits of blogging
Better know your market• Use Technorati or other search engines to find
relevant blogs and posts• Read, read, read• Keep an open mind
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Benefits of blogging
Low cost marketing and web publishing• Many free blog platforms• All it costs you is time• Extremely low cost compared to traditional
advertising with tremendous potential for ROI
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How do I get started?• Pick your blogging platform• Design• What elements to include• Pitfalls to avoid
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How do I get started?
Pick a free blog platform• Blogger.com• Typepad.com• Wordpress.com
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How do I get started?
“Create” your design layout• Use free templates • Pick one and go with it; don’t over think this• If you want something cool, go back and update later
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How do I get started?
Don’t over “widget”. Here’s what you need:• Subscriber button to RSS feed• List of links• Recent posts• About section or page
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How do I get started?
Once you have a few posts under your belt, add:• Archives• Tag cloud or categories
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How do I get started?
Do NOT:• Wait until you get it “perfect” to launch• Use the platform subdomain
(i.e. creativenoggin.wordpress.com); create your own domain
• Keep your blog a secret• Monetize
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Posting • Who should write your posts?• What do you write about?
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Posting
Who should write your posts?• Who is best suited to connect with your audience?• Single spokesperson writer?• Or collaboration?• Or customers?
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Posting
What do you write about? All posts should:• Be customer centric• Have personality• Be brief• Provide unique info• Educate, inform and discuss• Give people a reason to come back
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Posting
What not to do in your posts:• Don’t use corporate jargon• Make your blog a corporate brochure• Use stilted language• Ignore comments• Provide self serving info; focus on your customer
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Posting
Sample post topics:• Come up with a unique angle focused on your customer• Highlight your clients success stories• Link to prospects blogs if relevant• Build a community for current customers as well as
prospects• Be a resource• Provide exclusive tips and info• Invite customers to write guest posts• Be sure to ask for comments/feedback on every post!
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Blog PromotionHow do I get traffic?• SEO• Social Media• Internal links• Blog directories• Read blogs and comment• Pitch the press
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Blog Promotion
SEO• ID your keywords• Use Google or Yahoo keyword tool• Keep the long tail in mind
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Blog Promotion
General phrases, high search volume, difficult to rank for
More specific phrases with lower search volume but easier to rank for; prospects are easier to close
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Blog Promotion
Selecting keywords• Start with long tail, lower volume word/phrases• But include high volume phrases in content and
occasionally so you will build for these over time• Make a list and prioritize
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Blog Promotion
Where do I put these keywords?• In the title• In the url• The first sentence of post• Photos/media
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Blog Promotion
Promote your blog using email• Announcement email• Monthly emails/newsletters• Event emails• Emails to certain prospects with posts relevant
to them
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Blog Promotion
Social Media• Facebook• LinkedIn• Twitter• Digg• Stumble Upon• FriendFeed
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Blog Promotion
Internal links• Link within your blog posts to other posts that are
relevant
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Blog Promotion
Blog Directories• Technorati• Blog Catalog• Hundreds of others
http://www.toprankblog.com/rss-blog-directories/
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Blog Promotion
Continue to read, read, read!• Visit high traffic blogs with relevant info• Leave comments• Build relationships with other bloggers
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Blog Promotion
Pitch to the press• If you’re doing something really unique, pitch the
story to the press
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Now what?
• Watch traffic, see what works, repeat• Tools for tracking traffic: www.budurl.com• www.statcounter.com
• Keep posting and commenting• Be patient
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Great blogs to read
• Chris Brogan www.chrisbrogan.com• Seth Godin http://sethgodin.typepad.com/ • Alan Weinkrantz http://alanweinkrantz.typepad.com/ • Mack Collier http://moblogsmoproblems.blogspot.com/ • Blogs of Newspapers and Reporters:
San Antonio Express NewsSA ChronicleBusinessWeek
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Thank you!!